Am I The A****ole? Let’s Judge Other People’s Gambling Disasters

Let’s get judging some gambling disasters!

Many of you will know about AITA. It’s one of Reddit’s largest subreddits, and it stands for, “Am I the A**hole?” (that’s the American spelling, but this is Online-Casinos UK, so I used the British spelling in the title and throughout the blog). It’s a place where people tell the internet their gossipy stories and other people judge them for it.

Today, I have scoured the subreddit for the best stories about gambling disasters. I’m going to give you a brief synopsis of each one, and then let you decide whether the person is or isn’t an a*sehole.

Now, I know, I know: being judgy isn’t a good thing, but one thing that you need to know about AITA is that, at this point, it’s mostly a place where people practice their creative writing. The stories are often outrageously fake, so don’t feel bad about what we’re doing.

Right, let’s get on with the human spectacle. Here are my favourite gambling disasters from AITA.

A*sehole 1: gambling with your kid’s college funds

Cor blimey, one look at that title and it’s hard to think of a scenario where the person isn’t a complete donkey.

So, this person went off on a little holiday to Las Vegas (during COVID, but we’re only here to judge gambling disasters), but didn’t have enough money for a good time.

He did the only logical thing that an a*sehole would do, and he took $30k out of his kid’s college fund account…without telling his wife. He thinks that’s OK because he came back with $37.5k.

His wife has stopped talking to him. Now he’s wondering if he’s an a*se after all.

He has a few justifications for not being one:

1. He says he would have been able to pay the money back if he’d lost it. His kids are so young that it’s not as important (his view, not mine).
2. He came back with more money than he left with, so what’s the problem (again, his view, not mine)?

I think there are a few problems here:

1. He blatantly has a gambling addiction.  Who thinks it’s a good idea to ever spend $30k on a week away, let alone on gambling?
2. He didn’t tell his wife beforehand. Win or not, that’s a trust issue right there. She now thinks he’s immature…and it does kind of sound like it, doesn’t it?

The only redeeming thing in the whole story is that he usually has a dedicated gambling account and never touches his other bank accounts for gambling purposes. That is the right thing to do, and it will stop you from spiralling into debt. You put what you can afford into the account, and you only ever use that account to gamble. He broke that rule.

Reddit was unanimous: he’s an a*se.

A*sehole 2: gambling with your dad’s money

Your dad trusts you with his bank account, an account he uses exclusively for trading stocks and shares. You’re supposed to pass your ideas past him before you make a bet, but you’ve just heard that GME shares are a sure bet.

You guessed it, this guy spent his dad’s money on GME stocks, and when the gamble paid off, he told his dad. His dad did not see the bright side, but can you?

This is another person like a*sehole 1 in my opinion. Lying is lying, whether it paid off or not.

But in a twist, the dad is actually happy now, has let him stay on as the main account holder, and even bought a new car.

So, is he an a-hole? What do you think?

Reddit says, “Yes! Another a-hole”.

A*sehole 3: Stealing money from your employer to gamble on stocks and shares

I’m starting to notice a pattern with all these stories. The person steals money from someone/something important but wins, so it must be alright! If this is a creative writing sub, they’re rubbish at it!

In this story, the person “borrows” (steals?) money from their employer, which they then bet on some risky stocks. Luckily for them, the stocks increase in value from $2000 to $10000, seemingly over a weekend. And this triggers my bullsh*t radar because it means the stocks increased by 500% over a weekend, unlikely but it has been known.

Karma whoring aside, is this person an a-hole? Reddit says no. They say he’s actually a criminal, and I have to say that I think they might be right, literally.

Summary

If these stories are true, then there seems to be a pattern in gambling and a-hole behaviour, namely that they gamble with other people’s money. This is a huge red flag for gambling addiction – it’s one of the signs that you’re supposed to look out for. If any of these stories are true, they need to get help for their gambling habits.

In the meantime, if you want a chance to voice your opinion on this blog, check out our Twitter post and leave a comment.